As The Sustainable Sites Initiative reports, pollution from water runoff is no joke. "Contaminated stormwater runoff from developed land is the leading cause of water quality problems[23] and accounts for 70 percent of water pollution in urban areas.[29] Runoff from developed areas can contain oil, grease, excessive nutrients, pathogens (e.g., E. coli, hepatitis A), persistent bioaccumulative toxic (PBT) chemicals, and heavy metals."

Today's Gazette contains a guest column from Thomas Wallace. He lives next to the Back Stevens Conservation Property in South Hadley. Its upper and lower ponds used to feature clean, clear waters used for mill operations and ice making. Later it supported fishing and passive recreation. Those days are gone...

In the early '70s, all this began to end when the South Hadley Conservation Commission (SHCC) granted permission to the Massachusetts state Highway Department to dump all that problematic drainage waters from the Plains areas into the ravine in back of the Plains School ball field. Suddenly, one of the spring-fed brooks feeding the trout pond became the receptor for all drainage from the new Route 202 and 33 intersection, along with the surrounding neighborhood, streets and parking lots. That was a nefarious decision at best.

The 2-inch, 18-inch and 36-inch concrete pipes began to spew gas, oil, grease, salt, pesticides, fertilizer, etc. into a pristine wetland sanctuary...

Every time it rained now, both ponds would turn brown. Even during dry spells when the muddy waters settled, the ponds lost that clear, clean quality. They took on a permanent greenish tint. The upper pond began to fill in at an alarming rate but nothing was done...

The next tragedy to visit this wetland was when the SHCC did yet another study of regulations and order of conditions, and then allowed the town to dump the problematic flood waters from the South Hadley High School athletic fields into the empty upper pond, which found its way to the lower pond. Now the light green tinge in the lower pond water turned dark green from fertilized waters oozing in from the athletic fields, and when conditions are right, football size hunks of algae form. Much of the endemic fish population in the lower pond had died out by now...

Holding capacity of the lower pond had been destroyed from the thousands of tons of mud filling it in as a direct result of the SHCC letting the state dump polluted flood waters from the Plains area into that once pristine wetland area...

The Black Stevens Conservation Property has turned into a very empty place. No fisherman, walks, birds, squirrels or turtles are there anymore to speak of...

Once again, the message is clear. Give wetlands and water bodies their space. Developers may argue that retention ponds can mitigate runoff problems, but these can require constant maintenance, and, as shown below, often fail.


See also:

Gazette opinion: "Don't ease controls on wetlands" (10/25/07)
Proponents of Northampton's new wetlands buffer zone regime, which authorizes development as close as 10 feet to wetlands in nine zoning districts, tried to reassure critics by saying developers wouldn't automatically be entitled to get that close. The reality, however, is Northampton's Conservation Commission will now be on the defensive whenever it asks developers for more than the minimum specified in the new ordinance. Alexandra Dawson, chair of Hadley's Conservation Commission, writes in today's Gazette [emphasis added]:

I thoroughly agree with recent comments to the effect that this is not the time to weaken local controls over development in or near wetlands. Few cities and towns outside Route 495 have local wetlands protection ordinances and bylaws; so what happens to one is likely to happen to others. This is clearly what has happened in Northampton and Greenfield...

...Northampton has adopted changes to its bylaws that limit the setback between development and wetlands in the business district to 10 feet, although it is obvious that 10 feet is not even enough space to accommodate the big yellow machines that do the building. It is true that a recent court decision indicates that wetlands ordinances (or conservation commission regulations adopted under them) should enumerate setbacks so that builders need not guess what will be required of them. Unfortunately, there is also case law stating that whatever is so established limits the commission's discretion to ask for more unless there is a specific showing of why one proposal stands out from the others. If the setback in the ordinance is 10 feet, it will be very hard for the commission to justify a permit restricting building for 50 feet. For this reason, most eastern Massachusetts bylaws that contain setbacks start at 25 to 50 feet.

Hyla Ecological Services Analyzes the Proposed Wetlands Ordinance
Buffer function was found to be directly related to the width of the buffer. Ninety-five percent of buffers smaller than 50 feet suffered a direct human impact within the buffer, while only 35% of buffers wider than 50 feet suffered direct human impact. Human impacts to the buffer zone resulted in increased impact on the wetland by noise, physical disturbance of foraging and nesting areas, and dumping refuse and yard waste. Overall, large buffers reduced the degree of changes in water quality, sediment load, and the quantity of water entering the adjacent wetland.

EPA: Wetlands and Flood Protection
Wetlands within and downstream of urban areas are particularly valuable, counteracting the greatly increased rate and volume of surface-water runoff from pavement and buildings...

WATERSHEDSS: Major Causes of Wetland Loss and Degradation
Urbanization is a major cause of impairment of wetlands (USEPA 1994b). Urbanization has resulted in direct loss of wetland acreage as well as degradation of wetlands. Degradation is due to changes in water quality, quantity, and flow rates; increases in pollutant inputs; and changes in species composition as a result of introduction of non-native species and disturbance. The major pollutants associated with urbanization are sediment, nutrients, oxygen-demanding substances, road salts, heavy metals, hydrocarbons, bacteria, and viruses (USEPA 1994b). These pollutants may enter wetlands from point sources or from nonpoint sources. Construction activities are a major source of suspended sediments that enter wetlands through urban runoff.

Paved Surfaces, Salt and Water Bodies: A Bad Mix

Gazette: "Salt suspected in Southampton well contamination"
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Web site, salt is a cheap and effective solution to ice-covered roads that can be a problem for drinking water systems as runoff affects local soil quality, groundwater and surface water supplies...

Northampton's Flood and Natural Hazard Mitigation Plan: Wetlands Buffers of 100 Feet Are an Effective Flood Mitigation Strategy and Should Be Consistently Enforced
In general, a core problem for infill in Northampton is to avoid placing large numbers of people and structures in low-lying areas downtown that may be at risk for flooding. As the plan states, "In recent years, heavy rainstorms have caused significant problems in more urbanized areas as increased development inhibits proper drainage and existing or poorly maintained water systems cannot handle increased stormwater runoff."

Maintaining Stormwater Management Systems
“The number-one problem we saw in stormwater quality was that no one was maintaining anything,” Moll [John Moll, chief executive officer of Lawrenceville, GA–based CrystalStream Technologies] notes. “We’d ask people, ‘How do you clean these things?’ And they had nothing. Now, it’s gotten better. But there is still a lot of work to be done.”

...[Some] owners assume they will stay in compliance simply by cleaning the BMPs—or scheduling a cleaning—every year or every six months. Problem is, some BMPs don’t need that much cleaning, depending on the type of stormwater device and its location, Jacobson says, while others may need cleaning much more frequently.

Alex Ghiselin, Letter to Gazette: "Don't let development encroach on our wetlands"
Northampton has a natural wetland system that protects us from flooding, nurtures biodiversity and filters our groundwater. Allowing development within 10 feet of this system in almost every residential district is not a good idea.

The failure of the storm water system built as a part of the Northampton High School renovation six years ago illustrates why protecting wetlands is so important. Silt has filled the retention pond so there is no capacity to slow a storm surge which now flows unimpeded into the Mill River and contributes to flooding downstream. This accumulated silt also raised the water table and spills ground water into nearby basements...

Without maintenance, these [storm water mitigation] systems are part of the problem, not the solution...

Wetlands do not need to be maintained; they just need to be protected.

Mike Kirby: Compensatory Wetland on Carlon Drive Not Working

Snow and Slush Expose Limits of Storm Drains

Connecticut River Watershed Action Plan: Remove impervious surfaces within 50 feet of streams
To reduce nonpoint source pollution from stormwater runoff, the Connecticut River Strategic Plan proposes the removal of impervious surfaces within 50 feet of streams and the investigation of "functional replacements" (such as the use of permeable pavement) for impervious surfaces within 100 feet of streams, in developed areas (PVPC, 2001). In the urbanized areas, the removal or retrofitting of impervious areas and the implementation of Stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs) could be beneficial in improving water quality.

Intermittent Streams Merit a 100-Foot Buffer Zone in Hopkinton
Here is a bylaw from Hopkinton's Wetlands Protection Regulations (PDF) requiring a 100-foot buffer zone around intermittent (and continuous) streams. We note that just such an intermittent stream, Millyard Brook, runs through the heart of the forest behind North Street that Kohl Construction intends to build on.

Photo Essay: Millyard Brook Swells with Water in Winter (1/12/08)
On January 11, a mild and rainy day, Millyard Brook is clearly not dry, but helping a large volume of water flow safely through the neighborhood. Adding impervious surface near streams like these can increase the speed and volume of runoff that flows into them and make them more flood-prone. In addition, the pollution from developed areas (e.g. salts, oils, herbicides) can harm the vegetation. As the City of Northampton acknowledges, "Problems with nutrient runoff, erosion, siltation, loss of groundwater recharge, poor water quality, vegetation change and harm to wildlife habitat are greatly exacerbated by activities within 100 feet of wetlands..."

Northampton Redoubt: Videos and photographs of a walking tour of North Street Northampton's Mill Yard Brook and vernal pools